Last week, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) showcased nine ambitious projects as part of the AI Next initiative, a new five-year, $2 billion plan to bring about new advances in AI.

“We are harvesting the intellectual fruit that was planted decades ago,” says John Everett, deputy director of DARPA’s Information Innovation Office. “That’s why we’re looking at far forward challenges—challenges that might not come to fruition for a decade.”

China is thriving in AI because of an abundance of data. DARPA’s initiative is designed to keep the US ahead with the invention of the next big ideas. This AI war, if kept healthy, will shape our society in the future in a great way.

Going for and implementing “out-there” disruptive ideas is also what we have been doing with AIWS. AIWS is taking the lead in the policy space toward building a world society, where AI not only helps with advanced technologies, but also serves and strengthens democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.